Chapter Text
Once they get back to their camp Harry had to show Mr. Weasley how to use matches (and, more importantly, make sure he didn’t set the camping in fire). Then, they started making breakfast. Bill, Charlie and Percy arriving soon after.
Afterward, Mr. Weasley started to tell them stories about the ministry, to Hermione and Harry great interest especially regarding the “unspeakable”, they worked in the ministry but couldn’t tell anyone what they were doing. Mr. Weasley children’s, in the other hand, had heard these stories quite often and soon started to distract themselves by talking about the final.
Despite her entertainment regarding anything concerning politic, Hermione soon realized her thought always returns to the French witch she met earlier. it was surprising, she wasn’t the king of girl who couldn’t focus because of another person. At some point, she was so completely lost in her mind thinking about the previous meeting and how she will visit Fleur the next day that she didn’t realized another wizard had joined them.
He was quite pompous and Hermione dislike him right away. She noticed Percy was trying hard to get the older wizard attention by giving him tea and explain to him that he has already finished his rapport regarding cauldron. She understood the man was probably Mr. Crouch, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Percy’s boss.
Mr. Weasley introduced him to anyone present, he stares quite rudely at Harry forehead when he hears the young boy name. When he hears Hermione name’s and registers she was a muggleborn, she notices a quick flicker of disdain in his eyes before he returns his attention toward Mr. Weasley. He left shortly after having heard the Bulgarian delegation was causing trouble.
Hermione wanted to ask question about Mr. Crouch thought toward muggleborns (after all didn’t the point of cooperation meant you have to support every single person despite their blood status?), but with Harry, Ron and Ginny begging her to go with them buy some souvenirs she decided to drop the subject for now.
She was again amazed by the things magic could create and, along the others, buy a lot of stuff to remembering that day. Ginny and Ron try to make her purchase a hat with Bulgarian colors but choose instead an Ireland one (no that has nothing to do with the fact the French witch cheered for them).
The rest of the day passed quickly and soon it was time to go and get their seats for the game. Mr. Weasley succeed to get them VIP pass, they were in the official loge alongside the ministry of magic and others important people. Harry confound an House elf with Dobby, but the little creature corrects him.
“I is Winky young mister, how do you know Dobby?” sayed Winky, her face hiding behind her hands
“I’m Harry, Harry Potter. Dobby is my friend, I released him from his previous masters”
“Harry Potter, Dobby often mention young mister, you didn’t help him by offering him freedom, no, no, Dobby wants to be payed now Harry Potter” exclaimed the little creature, looking rather horrified with only the mere idea of wanting to be paid
“But… it is normal to want to be paid, no?” said Hermione
“Oh no young miss, house elves serve their masters till’ their death and are not paid, we had to obeyed them, and we are happy to do it. I is afraid of height, but my master asks me to keep him a seat, so I do that, oh yes I do” replied Winky, piking in the view in front of her and, after released a little squeak, hide again.
Harry looked furious at that. “How come your master asks you to do that if you’re afraid of height? It is cruel!”
“Mr. Crouch is not a cruel man Harry Potter, Winky is lucky to serves him!” retorted Winky “now young mister should look in front of him, the game will start quickly”
Understanding the dismiss, Harry, Ron and Hermione peering around them and noticed the loge was quite full now. Unfortunately, the Malfoys were there too, and Hermione had to restrained Ron to avoid him breaking Draco’s nose after the little git made a rude comment on the Weasleys family.
“But Mione’ it isn’t fair you did it last year” whined the red-haired boy
“Yes, but as far as I remembered we weren’t surrounded by ministry officials who could lock you up for it!” replied the brunette
Ron doesn’t get the time to respond, the mascot of the Bulgarian team enters. They were probably the most beautiful women everyone has ever seen. They, strangely, remembered Hermione of Fleur. She saw the boys starting drooling and the girls looking with anger and jealousy in their eyes but to her surprised, she seems unaffected by the women.
Her and Mr. Weasley had to stop Ron from jumping from the loge to a certain death, and once everyone calmed down after the impressive display of the Ireland mascots, Hermione asks what was the magic the women used to make almost everyone react so strongly to them.
“They’re veelas Hermione, not humans” explained Mr. Weasley, “they are magical creatures who had similar powers to the sirens. They attire men with their unnatural beauty, it is called a thrall, and repulsed women with it. Not a lot of thing is known about them beside that, and the fact teenagers react more strongly to them than adults, hence Ron behavior”
“If teenagers are so predisposed to fall to their thrall, why wasn’t I affected by it?” inquired Hermione, puzzled.
“I am not sure, people with strong will can resist it, it is probably yours and Harry’s case, didn’t you notice? He wasn’t attracted to them either”. Replied Mr. Weasley
“Yeah… Probably”. She wasn’t convinced it was the only explanation, after all Harry reacts to them too, he just got his senses back before he raises from his seat (she saw him clutches his seat when the women enter).
Her thought was soon distracted by the entry of the quidditch teams. After the second crashed of the Ireland’s seeker she decides to imitate Winky and hide behind her hands, peeking time to time to see the progression of the game. Viktor Krum, the Bulgaria’s seeker, ended the game by catching the snitch, unluckily for him, Ireland wins the game and the cup thanks to the incredible worked of the chasers.
On their way back to the camp, they come across of partying Irish. Mr. Weasley allowed them to stay up late, reviving the game or simply enjoying the atmosphere. They were sent to bed when Ginny starts dozing off. Despite her current state of exhaustion, Hermione had a hard time falling asleep, she was replaying the day in her head, a blond woman invading her thought once more.
She was waking up with a start when she hears shooting, but it wasn’t screams of victory like earlier, but more screams of terror. Her assumptions proved to be correct when Mr. Weasley enters hers and Ginny’s tent, telling them to dress quickly and join the others outside (yes something was definitely wrong thought Hermione).
Once outside, they noticed people running away, clearly terrified.
“Dad, what’s going on?” asked Ginny
“You have to run and hide in the woods too, we are under attack” answered Mr. Weasley
“Who’s attacking? Why can’t we help?” pressed Harry
“No time for questions Fred, George watch Ginny, the others you absolutely have to stay together and hide”
“But…” argued Ron
“No but, Go!”
Hermione takes the boys arms and rans to the woods, a tent exploded near them, allowed them to see a group of people hiding under masks marching in the middle of the camp, setting tents in fire and tried to hex everyone they seen.
“What the hell” exclaimed Harry “Who are they?”
“You hear Mr. Weasley, no time for questions we have to go!” replied the brunette, tried to force him to continue,
“But look they have the director of the camping and his family suspended above them! We have to do something!”
“Are you kidding? Don’t you see they are probably death eaters? We can’t do nothing against them, plus if they found Hermione they are going to hurt her, we need to go Harry” exclaimed Ron “Yes, it is disgusting and awful but there is nothing we can do” added the red-haired boy when he sees Harry wanted to argue.
“I agree with Ron, Harry come on we already have loosed the others!” Hermione wanted to fight as well but realized that three fourteen years old against adults determined to create chaos couldn’t hold their own, and if Ron was correct and they were indeed death eaters then Harry was in great danger, the necessity of finding a refuge was becoming really urgent.
Harry reluctantly began to walk again but their argument had made them lost time, and before any of them could react a hex sent by one of the men under the masks almost hit them, sending them to the ground. The man determinedly made his way towards the three teenagers, wand raised but before he could send another curse he was hit by a spell which makes him fall backwards, unconscious.
“How…” began Ron before being interrupted by a voice coming from behind them
“What ze three of you still doing ‘ere? Why are you not ‘iding?” a very familiar and panic voice shooted
“Fleur!” said a relieved Hermione “Why you’re not hiding either?”
“Je suis majeure, I can fight them, but zis iz not ze point, we need to go, maintenant!” pressed the French witch.
The four of them heads off to the woods, Fleur sending hexes or using protection spells when needed. They stop running once they were sheltered by the trees to catch their breath.
“Thanks for saving us, but what were you doing in this place? Didn’t your camp’s far from here?” inquired Hermione
The older girl shrugged, “I wanted to see if I could ‘elp, all my neighbors ‘ad already found a refuge and I ‘ad the feeling that I needed to go ‘ere” before Hermione could say something, she added “we can’t stay ‘ere, we are to clause to the entry, we need to get going” she takes Hermione hand and began following the dark path, dragging the younger girl with her.
Oddly, the brunette felt quite safe now, and realized with stupor she had feeling that way the moment the French witch rescued them from the mask man. Plus, she wasn’t uncomfortable holding Fleur’s hand, it was weird too, she usually wasn’t a fan of prolonged contact with other people. She noted her thought had drift once again (it was becoming recurrent since she had had met the older girl) when she realized Harry was beside her and was talking to Fleur.
“Thanks again, you saved us. I’m Harry by the way and the drooling boy is Ron” said the dark-haired boy while they were sinking into the forest.
“What? I do not drool Harry” a very indignant and red Ron responded
“My name’s Fleur, nice to meet you” laughed the blonde, she grew serious again and used a lumos with a quick flick of her wand “I zink ze three of you need to also a Lumos too, it iz really dark in ‘ere”
Ron and Hermione followed the French witch example immediately while Harry was seeking for his wand in his pockets.
“Guys wait I can find my wand!” panicked the young boy “I have to go back, it probably falls off my pocket when the man attacks us”
Fleur quickly grab him by the arm and yank him forward, “Non! You cannot take zat risk, returning zere will be suicide”
“But I can do nothing without it!” said Harry, jerking his arm free from the blonde hold.
“It doesn’t matter, we are three wiz a wand, and ‘ere we are not in immediate danger, which will not be ze case if you return! You’ll find it when it will be over”
Suddenly, they heard a noise, as if someone was staggering towards them. Fleur grab Hermione by her jumper and pull her behind, placing herself between the younger witch and the noise, wand raises. She also counselled their lumos, leaving them almost in the complete dark.
“Who’s…” started Ron
“Chut! Ne fais pas de bruit, we don’t know if it iz an enemy or not” whispered the blond.
The noise stops, and even though they couldn’t see anything clearly, they were under the impression a shadow was moving not far from them, and it halted its movement upon hearing Ron’s voice. Long seconds passed while they didn’t even dare to breath, they just stare at the place where they think the shadow stops.
Sharply a man voice shoot “morsmordre” and a huge green form was sent above the forest, the form turning rapidly in a giant like green skull with a snake coming out of its mouth, illuminating the entire forest. Screams began resonated around them, and they saw a man running away where the shadow had been. Panic take over and people start trying to get away the fastest they could.
“What…” began Harry, he was soon interrupted by both witch, Ron looking too shock to say anything.
“C’est la marque des ténèbres, il faut partir vite!” said a completely scared Fleur
“Come on Harry, it’s the Dark Mark, it’s His mark!” added a very white Hermione
“Voldemort’s Mark…? But how…?”
“Not now, hurry!”
But before they could go away the woods erupted with the sounds of appearing wizards, the group sending spells in their direction, they just had the time to duck before the first spell hit the trees around them.
“Stop! Stop right now this is my son and his friends” screamed Mr. Weasley
“It didn’t matter who they are Arthur! They created the Dark Mark” explained Amos Diggory “we have to arrest them”
Mr. Weasley turned bright red with rage and retorted “Have you lost your mind? This is Harry Potter! Do you really think he would cast it? He doesn’t even know how to do it”.
Mr. Crouch walked towards the teens, looking rather dubious. “Really? Then how do you explained the fact that they are in the exact place where the cursed had been casted?”
Harry step forward and explained to the ministry represent that a man was besides a tree and it was him who had made the Dark Mark.
“A man? And where is that man now Mr. Potter?” replied Crouch
“He just told you, he ran away as soon as he cast it” interfered Mr. Weasley.
“Convenient isn’t it?”
Harry prepared himself to argue again with the man when Mr. Diggori steps in, “I will go check if there is not a proof, after all Arthur is right, they’re children they can’t have done it”. It takes only a few seconds for Mr. Diggori to found, not only Harry’s missing wand but also the petrified corps of Winky, Crouch’s house elf.
To that point, the situation escalated shortly. Crouch, aided by a spell, showed it was indeed Harry’s wand which cast the curse. Leading him to returns against his own house elf and, despite her pleading to do not fired her and that it was not her who created the Dark Mark, he remained firm and gave her a cloth, releasing her in the process.
Hermione, upon seeing the injustice jerked away from Fleur tight grip on her jumper and moved forward, beginning to point out the incoherencies in his reasoning. (To say Crouch wasn’t happy about being questioning by a fourteen years old girl was a euphemism).
“And what a little muggleborn like you know about what I can or cannot do with my servitor? She disobeyed a direct order, it is my right to released her for it!” snarled the old man
“She disobeyed because she was scared! There is nothing wrong with that!” replayed the bushy-haired girl “And I might be a muggleborn but I, at least, know how to treat and respect others living beings, not like you, who thinks because you are a so-called pureblood you’re above anyone else!”
“How dare you speaking to me like that, miserable little mud…”
A loud bang resonated in the woods before Crouch could end his sentence and then Fleur steps in front of Hermione, eyes flashed dangerously, the usual sky blue replaced by a striking purple, wand raises once again in defense of the younger girl. She said in a very low voice, barely above a whisper, and yet heard by everyone near the pair “Tried to insult ‘er ever again old fool and you will know what ze fury of a veela looks like”
Crouch turned a deep shade red and didn’t seemed to be able to reply anything. As for his colleagues, none of them had the will to interfere, the girl looking rather scary in the moment. Mr. Weasley took the opportunity and starts leading the teens away, but the French witch wasn’t moving, still in a staring contest with the man.
Hermione stand aside the older girl and put a hand in her forearm and tug at it “come on Fleur lets go, he is not worth it, please let’s go back to the camp”
The younger girl plea seems to reach the French witch, she slowly put her wand down and finally look away from Crouch, her gaze falling into the warm brown eyes of Hermione, who smiled shyly at her. Fleur took a deep breath and smiled back, her eyes turned blue again, then she takes the brunette hand in her own and walked away from the man. Crouch steps forward to stops them when Amos Diggori halted him.
“Enough, it had been a long night, we’re all exhausted, and we don’t need more paperwork because we arrest a French citizen, plus we have other pressing matters to attend to”.
Crouch nodded and prepared to leave, saying “this is far from over half-breed” before apparate.
Fleur tightened her grip on Hermione’s hand and leading her away from the ministry officials. The walk back to the camp was silent, everyone was a little confused about the unexpected turn of event. Once reaching their tent, they realized Bill, Charlie, Percy, the twins and Ginny were already there, waiting for them. The Weasleys and Harry rejoin them, while Hermione stays behind with Fleur.
“Thanks for protecting me against him, you didn’t have to, I hope I didn’t get you into too much trouble…” started the brunette, staring down at her feet, quite ashamed of herself to loosing her calm in the woods.
Fleur squeezed her hand reassuringly, “’Ermione look at me” she waits till’ the younger girl raised her head and lock her gaze with her own before pursuing, “Don’t worry, you didn’t get me into any troubles, you weren’t ze one out of line back zere, ze responsibility belongs to ze old man”. “And I will always protect you”, thought the older girl.
“But I shouldn’t have provoked him like I did”
“Maybe, but you stood up on ze behalf of a creature who couldn’t do it ‘erself, even wiz ze knowledge zat ‘ouse elves are nozing but slaves for wizards, according to me, you were pretty brave”
The younger girl blushed and look away, she couldn’t hold Fleur’s earnest look. “what do you think will happened to Winky?”
The blonde sighed “’Onestly I don’t know, she will probably try to enter in ze service of another family”
“But she will be a slave again!”
Fleur nodded, “oui, it is disgusting but zis iz ‘ow zings worked”. Feeling Hermione distress about the future of the little elf she wrapped her arms around the smaller girl and hold her close to her “Je suis vraiment désolée, but zere iz nozing we can do now nor even before” she whispered in Hermione’s hear.
At first, Hermione tenses in Fleur’s arms, not expecting the gesture. But she soon relaxed into it, feeling perfectly safe and warm in the embrace, she rested her head in the older girl shoulder and lock her own arms around the French witch waist, the blonde words soothing her. Maybe she couldn’t do anything at the moment, but she will try to do something about it later.
A sudden thought crosses her mind and before she couldn’t stop herself asked “why do your eyes turned purple sometimes?” and then processed to mentally kick herself for her insensitivity. Fleur sighed “I would razer talk about zat anozer time if it iz alright wiz you”
“Yes of course I’m sorry, I was out of place” replied the brunette,
Fleur tightened her hold and chuckles “Zere iz nozing to forgive, it iz normal to be curious”
They stay in each other embrace a little more but too soon Fleur pulls back. “I ‘ave to go back to my family zey are probably worried, I was gone a long time”
Hermione nodded, “thank you again for everything you’ve done for my friends and I tonight Fleur, it means a lot”
“You’re welcome” then the blonde starts chewing her bottom lip, looking unsure of herself, which surprised Hermione, Fleur was nothing but confident. “do you zink we can exchange letters in ze future? Only if you want obviously”
“I would love that, I stay in a place called the Burrows till’ the end of the summer then I will go back to Hogwarts, your owl should find me easily” beamed Hermione.
“Hogwarts? You’re intending at Hogwarts?” asked Fleur in bewilderment
“Huh yes, why do you look so surprised by that ?” retorted Hermione
A huge smile appears on the other girl face, “you’ll see, anyway I will send you an owl shortly once I get ‘ome” then, like the last time, she kissed Hermione cheeks and added “au revoir Hermione, prends soin de toi” before apparate to rejoin her family.